This uneasy Status Quo would carry on until the 1970’s, when American president Richard Nixon initiated his Open China Policy, a diplomatic move to open up and normalize relations between the United States and the PRC. Nixon had long been keen to reap the rewards of normalized relations with the PRC, both political and economic. Opening up the mainland would isolate the Soviet Union by driving a giant wedge between Sino – Soviet relations, which at the time, were already quite strained. As well as Mao’s guarantee to put pressure on the North Vietnam government to seek peace during the height of the war. International trade was also a major factor for normalization due to the huge population of China.
President Nixon and his National Security…show more content… Many nations, including even the democracies of Western Europe now formally recognized the PRC as China and removed their ambassadors from Taipei. This was all part of the PRC’s attempt of isolating Taiwan. No nation was able to conduct any trade or business with China, if they still formally recognized Taiwan as a sovereign nation. As a consolatory effort, most likely to appease the disgruntled American public and those within the United States government who were still more favorable to Taiwan, under President Jimmy Carter the American government passed the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, which reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to defending Taiwan’s sovereignty as well as the cooperation and friendship between both nations, even if officially they could not claim to do…show more content… The country will elect its next president for 2016 and there are a few projects that the DDP could return to power under Tsai Ing-wen. This possible friction is related to China’s instance that whoever may be elected, adhere to the “1992 Consensus” which both parties agreed to maintain the status quo. The issue is, the KMT had signed for Taiwan, and China will be worried if at an attempt by the DDP president to move closer to independence, going so far as having China’s current president, Xi Jinping to quip “pro-independence forces" in Taiwan were the biggest threat to peace in the Taiwan Strait . Not many people believe Ms. Tsai’s election would directly lead to armed-conflict, but it could definitely hurt the close business cooperation that has bloomed for the past few years for both nations. Much like the rest of the world, the people of Taiwan are more in favor of keeping the status quo, than moving one way or the other on the independence front, but what is interesting is that a growing number of the population are beginning to refer to themselves as Taiwanese rather than